“The Freedom Party (PVV),†read yesterday’s press release, “is shocked by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal’s decision to prosecute Geert Wilders for his statements and opinions. Geert Wilders considers this ruling an all-out assault on freedom of speech.â€Â
The appalling decision to try Wilders, the Freedom Party’s head and the Dutch Parliament’s only internationally famous member, for “incitement to hatred and discrimination†against Islam is indeed an assault on free speech. But no one who has followed events in the Netherlands over the last decade can have been terribly surprised by it. Far from coming out of the blue, this is the predictable next step in a long, shameful process of accommodating Islamâ€â€and of increasingly aggressive attempts to silence Islam’s criticsâ€â€on the part of the Dutch establishment.What a different road the Netherlands might have taken if Pim Fortuyn had lived! Back in the early spring of 2002, the sociologist-turned-politicianâ€â€who didn’t mince words about the threat to democracy represented by his country’s rapidly expanding sharia enclavesâ€â€was riding high in the polls and appeared on the verge of becoming the next prime minister. For his supporters, Fortuyn represented a solitary voice of courage and an embodiment of hope for freedom’s preservation in the land of the dikes and windmills. But for the Dutch political class and its allies in the media and academiaâ€â€variously blinded by multiculturalism, loath to be labeled racists, or terrified of offending Muslimsâ€â€Fortuyn himself was the threat. They painted him as a dangerous racist, a new Mussolini out to tyrannize a defenseless minority. The result: on May 6, 2002, nine days before the election, Fortuyn was gunned down by a far-left activist taken in by the propaganda. The Dutch establishment remained in power. For many Dutchmen, hope died that day.
There’s got to be a joke in here about the legality of fingering dykes.
Mark Steyn understands something of the use by the violent of the courts as an instrument of censorship and harassment against the non-violent:
The Dutch, like the Canadians, think they can maintain social peace by shriveling the bounds of public discourse and bringing what little remains under state regulation. But one notices that the coercive urge, which comes so naturally to Euro-progressives, only goes in one direction. The Swedish Chancellor of Justice shuts down the investigation into the Grand Mosque of Stockholm for selling tapes urging believers to kill “the brothers of pigs and apes” (ie, Jews) because that’s simply “the everyday climate in the rhetoric”. The masked men marching through the streets of London with placards threatening to rain down another 9/11 on the infidels are protected by a phalanx of Metropolitan Police officers. The PC nellies of the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission, happy to hound the last neo-Nazi in Saskatchewan posting to the Internet from his mum’s basement, won’t go anywhere near Abou Hammaad Sulaiman Dameus al-Hayitia, the big-time Montreal imam whose book says infidels are “evil people”, Jews “spread corruption and chaos”, and homosexuals should be “exterminated”.
Instead, the state’s response to explicit Islamic intimidation is to punish those foolish enough to point out that intimidation. You don’t have to be as intemperate as Minheer Wilders can sometimes be: In the Netherlands even the most innocuous statement can get you into trouble. To express his disgust at Theo van Gogh’s murder, the artist Chris Ripke put up a mural outside his studio showing an angel and the words “Thou shalt not kill”. But the cops thought this was somehow a dig at the local mosque and so came round, destroyed the mural, arrested the TV news crew filming it, and wiped their tape. The Dutch have determined to commit societal euthanasia, and dislike fellows pointing out it might not be as painless as they’ve assumed.
“They painted him as a dangerous racist, a new Mussolini out to tyrannize a defenseless minority.”
Because Islime is a race don’t ya know.
They’d probably still have Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Parliament and the Netherlands would be a better place.
Yep, and as one can plainly see, they’re being real tolerant of Wilders point of view…
Just like Islamic countries are sooooooooo tolerant of different points of view…
Amsterdam used to be such a lovely place to vacation; now it’ll become the first city of the dhimmitude…
As Mark Steyn says, in multiculturalism you display your sensitivity to other cultures by being completely insensitive to your own, in this case insensitive to the point of prosecution.
Pay close attention to how they’re doing this…
It’s coming, to the UK, then to Canada, and ultimately here…
They will use our own laws, and ideologies of multi-culturalism and identity politics to undermine us…
Hoist on our own petards…
This one of the reasons that I politically part company from the vast majority of gays. It is quite clear that Islam calls for repentance and/or death for the crime of homosexuality. Yet activist gays (our leaders!) say absolutely nothing about it.
They must have some evil Mormons to go harass or something…
Well, the former only want to deprive them of life, while the latter want to prevent them from marrying.
It is bizarrely ironic having to defend Wilders on free speech grounds all the while he wants to ban the Koran, no? (ht/LGF)
Does he have the right to say it, Sdferr?
To say “ban the Koran”? Oh, sure he does so far as I care about it. He can make his arguments and strive to persuade. (I doubt he’ll get to far with me though.) It’s just one of those ironical things I think needs pointing out to those who haven’t encountered Wilders before.
Perhaps the Saudis might let a few Bibles in to prevent it.
Let’s don’t get carried away there Dan. If they were to let Bibles (or Jews) in they wouldn’t be Saudis anymore.
Comparing Wilders to the Saudis? I’d say you’re making Sdferr’s point for him, Dan.
To point out that Wilder is inconsistent, even hypocritical, about his commitment to free exercise of speech isn’t to say the Dutch state is right here.
What’s ironic is that the guy saying “I don’t think we should hang gays and stone adulterers” is being prosecuted for “intolerance”, while the folks arguing for those acts are the supposed victims of his “intolerance”.
Maybe, but on the other hand, I thought it was wrong to send David Irving to jail for being an asshat.
I second your sentiment Jeffersonian, I don’t think Holland does right –from my point of view — by putting Wilders on trial, though I don’t know the letter of Dutch law that allows the trial either. The link I put up above seems to indicate that Mein Kampf is banned in Holland, for instance, where I would not have it so.
Same here, Dan. All it does is cause a queue to form for approved grievance groups so their ideological enemies can get sent to prison for saying unpopular things. Irving’s a dick, but isn’t it enough to say so and mock him? Why create a martyr?
We might ask, why did that Islamist scum-bag make a martyr of Theo van Gogh? (Oh, and why is he still alive?)
And those would be good questions, Sdferr.
I think some of you are missing the point. The real problem here is the long-held attitude of the leftie multi-culti crowd that says “freedom of speech for me, but not for thee”. And it’s not about banning the Koran or “Mein Kampf”. It doesn’t matter that if they could, the muzzies would kill or enslave the lefties just as quickly as anyone else who is not a muzzie. The end-all and be-all is about being politically correct and paying homage to every culture (no matter how fucked up it actually is) except one’s own.
Road to Hell, “good” intentions and all that.
Some of us think of it as “victimization envy,” Cave Bear.
The Liberal mind is bent on power. If appeasement gets them power so-be-it. Power gives you the oppurtunity to shut down opposing voice.
Does this tactic sound eerily familiar?
It’s been done before. Never with positive results. We are screwed unless we fight.
From the early 00s:
“In Holland, a militant vegan killed the flamboyant homosexual nativist Pim Fortuyn during the election campaign. Surely the first time in Dutch political history that a fruitarian had killed a fruit Aryan.”
— Mark Steyn, “Goodbye Europe”,
Free speech means protecting vile speech. We let the Klan march in Skokie; will the Dutch let Wilders remain at large?
Of course, we all denounce Steyn, for punning.
If I support the right wing racist Geert Wilders, can we kick that moron Steyn back to Canada where he belongs?
What do you want to do with all those Mosque hate-preachers, parsnip?
Where, Dan?
And you never said…do you support Wilder’s efforts to get the Koran banned?
Ah, yes! The tolerant, inclusive, welcoming liberal rears it’s ugly (and quite useless) head …
If Wilders were not in Parliament, would they be trying him?
snippy, why do you say that Steyn is a racist?
Oh, the ones who preach that hatred here, mostly, parsnip.
And, no, I don’t support Wilders’s efforts to have the Koran banned. And, no, I don’t think that Mein Kampf should be banned. And I don’t think that books with the word “nigger” in them should be banned from schools. And I support the right of people to make complete asses of themselves chanting as an ex-president departs.
I dislike a lot of this stuff, but I don’t want to see any of it banned. Not even Mark Steyn.
Wilders, that is.
Pablo, I may think Steyn is a Candaian high school dropout and arguably the dumbest of the wingnut pundits but please show me where I called him a racist.
Before you go off that way, again, parsnip, let me just remind you that it’s very evident that Steyn is a good deal more intelligent than you are, based on the only evidence I’ve got to make such an assessment.
Well, Steyn is receiving wingnut welfare for the drivel he cranks out by the ton, Dan.
Nice work if you can get it.
I had thought (prior to Pablo’s “Wilders, that is.” correction) that he was merely playing the same game with you that you play here everyday moron. Why not let him have his fun?
At least he’s not on the public tit, then, like Daniel Schnorer.
Ha, ha, ha! That’s definitely going to leave a mark, Snippy. Better have a doctor look at it.
Capitalisnm = wingnut welfare. A good lefty gets on the dole and takes his welfare the old fashioned way.
Why is Wilders a racist, snippy?
I’m all for imprisoning all the libs that called President G.W.Bush HITLER.
‘LET’S ROLL’
Haha, who is Daniel Schnorer?
Bruce Bawer has chronicled the descent of the Dutch in his book, “While Eurpoe Slept.” He is gay, and liberal, but that only reinforces the seriosness of their self-inflicted predicament. Bawer attributes much of the problem to the overwhelming presence of the welfare state. The average person does not get the entire story on any subject, only the version that the state wants them to have.
Add to this fact that the political class in entirely an in-bred, closed monopoly, where, if you are from the correct family, you will be groomed from childhood to be in the government, and essentially no one else is allowed in. It goes without saying that the entire establishment worships at the P.C. alter, and the very concept of holding others (Muslims) accountable for their actions is inconceivable.
Pablo, snippy mislikes him. QED
The difference between Capitalism and Marxism/Socialism is that in Capitalism, you don’t have to buy our product.
In Marxism/Liberalism, we are ALL required to pay for your bullshit.
Here he is.
Oops. Misspelled schnorrer.
Oh, and Capitalism works. Come to Michigan where they can’t even get the unemployment system to work …
Snippy is cockslapped again.
As for this Wilder guy, I’d never heard of him. What makes him a “racist”? Not caring for Islam does not make you a racist. Muzzies come in every race, color and hat size, so that shoots the “race” notion right down in flames.
Imagine a government of nothing but Kennedys and their hangers-on…
Maybe it just hasn’t reached the “tipping point,” yet, Carin.
He points out attitudes among Saintly Brown People that the lefties would find unconscionable if held by Demonic White People.
Aah, thanks, Dan.
That guy is kind of a bore.
NPR only gets a few percent of its budget from the government, BTW.
I miss that British guy they had who died a few years ago…Allister somebody?
Carin, I feel sorry for you. Capitalism certaily works. Have you heard of Honda or Toyota? They sell. They profit. Sit back on your ass and whine or stick you hand out sister. That’s the ticket!
Maybe you could get a skill?
Either you misread Carin, or I misread you, libocrat.
“Comment by parsnip on 1/23 @ 11:36 am #
Haha, who is Daniel Schnorer?”
The trick you had last night.
From wikipedia:
“Typically, NPR member stations raise about one-third of their budget through on-air pledge drives, one-third from corporate underwriting, and one-third from grants from state governments, university grants, and grants from the CPB itself.”
Really, though, it might be more egalitarian than Obama’s campaign, and I’m sure one of the first things they’ll do is submit FOIA papers to get the details on his donors.
Dan, I was being facetious. No jab at Carin. Michigan is both “broke and broken”. They sit there hoping that jobs will come back.
Kind of like me waiting for my High School sweetie to ring my door bell sometime soon!! Lib policies are not going to brig Detroit or any other Rust belt city back to former glory. But they will certainly try to “engineer” their new empire.
I thought that’s what you were going for till I got to “get a skill,” and I didn’t want Carin to get pissed, as it was clear to me. But no reason to apologize. Carry on.
That reminds me of the fundraiser Steyn’s group of losers at the corner tried recently.
I think they got a few hundred bucks before they took their meter down out of embarrassment.
And yet that group of losers is still more solvent than the NYT.
Ted Turner gave Dan Schorr a big satellite dish (approx 10′ dia.) back in the mid-eighties (it was a birthday present if I remember right). I watched it go up in Schorr’s sideyard and instantly guessed his neighbors in Woodley Park would be pissed. Unsightly, y’know. They didn’t disappoint. But it’s still there, at least in the latest google-earth streetview pic.
What ever makes you think National Review is profitable, Dan?
Buckley said it had lost money every single year since its founding.
Sort of like Amtrak, you mean, except without all the taxpayer dollars?
Given what a profligate liar Snippy is, I’d have to see the gun camera film on Buckley saying that. If NR is such a money loser, how has it managed to remain in business this past 50 or so years?
And yet that group of losers is still more solvent than the NYT.
Check that…Pinch just arranged for a truckload of pesos to be dumped into the NYT bottomless pit in exchange for some good editorial behavior for Carlos Slim.
Funny how the resident libtard ignores the fact that every liberal paper in the country is in significant trouble, and there have been suggestions of using bailout money to keep these fossils in business. NR neither needs, nor wants any such help, and will be around for decades to come.
Slightly OT, but did anyone else read the brief summary of the “mexican bailout” of the NYT on NRO? It appears that they had to drop trou and grab ankles in a serious way for that money. Slim will doubtless lose all of it, but the desperation of the Sulzberger’s is a fine thing to see.
And alpo trying to insult Mark Steyn is funny and pathetic, all at the same time.
I mean, c’mon, Mark is about 2 orders of magnitude more intelligent than our resident tuber.
OT, but interesting.
Hamas are war criminals.
“The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.”
-The Fourth Geneva Convention, Part 3, Article 1, Section 28.
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles2003/20031128.asp
Israel was perfectly justified in attacking Hamas while they hid behind women’s skirts.
alphie (why is he allowed to skirt his previous banning?) thinks that since Steyn occasionally posts at The Corner and NR sometimes carries his columns, he also isn’t the contributing editor at Maclean’s, the oldest news magazine in Canada.
alphie doesn’t seem to think at all, Techie…
That’s the problem
Carin, I feel sorry for you. Capitalism certaily works. Have you heard of Honda or Toyota? They sell. They profit. Sit back on your ass and whine or stick you hand out sister. That’s the ticket!
Maybe you could get a skill?
Erm, I really don’t think you understood my comment. Capitalism certainly works. Socialism (in the form of unemployment) doesn’t. The state runs the system and right now it is completely overwhlemed – in Michigan people have been trying for weeks to even register for it, but can’t.
In my view, the state-run unemployment system is a preview of the future for other state run enterprises.
Government SUCKS at running things.
As in, Capitalism hasn’t been running the state for a while …
Honestly, Michigan is the future of the country. Progressive ideas are the shizzit here.
Carin – I had the pleasure of visiting your fine warzone today.
NO’B, I think that a REAL parsnip is two orders of magnitude smarter than the cyber version currently infecting this site.
Has it explained why it called Steyn a racist yet?
Has it explained why it called Steyn a racist yet? Or Wilders?
JD, you were in Detroit? Why and where?
I’m actually over closer to Flint right now. I still own the house in Detroit, but I’m over in a little town called Lapeer.
Didn’t Jeebus cure a Lapeer?
Carin – I was in Romulus, and downtown, briefly.
Romulus
Coolest town name ever.
Why do I suspect that the actual town doesn’t live up to that?
[…] Protein Wisdom – People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures [ Dan Collins ] […]
#81
My only knowledge of Romulus is that there are an awful lot of used industrial equipment dealers there.
Romulus is where DTW is located. That’s all I know about the town. (Currently in Ann Arbor)
Shut Up!…
Or Else
This is the story, out of the Netherlands, about the consequences of speaking out. Dan Collins quotes the City Journal:
The appalling decision to try Wilders, the Freedom Party’s head and the Dutch Parliament’s only internationally famou……